Over the past 30 years, San Diego State University criminal justice professor Paul Sutton has shown nearly 2,000 students the insides of California prisons.

He escorts criminal justice majors on week-long excursions to eight different prisons to speak with guards, wardens, inmates and others about the California prison system and what it is like to live and work behind bars.

An experience unlike anything else

Because of his unique relationships, Sutton is able to get prison personnel and inmates to show the inner realities of the institutions, enabling students to experience things that people who do not live or work there seldom get to see, hear or feel. Thanks to a Presidential Leadership Fund grant, Sutton has been able to document these visits and share the experience like never before.

Sutton, who has already produced two Emmy-award winning documentaries about prison life, has finished this most recent project. It is told from the perspective of the 24 students as they tour the prison facilities.

“One of the things that has continued to impress me, is the impact that this experience has had on the thinking of the students who went,” Sutton said. “I thought it would be a great thing if somehow the rest of the world could go along so that everybody could see over the shoulders of these kids.”